Euro 2020 Qualifiers Top Five: Kane, Coman, Eriksen star

1:14pm on Monday 9th September 2019
By
Paul Macdonald

In international football, you can only beat what's in front of you, and we all know that teams at this level are made far from equal. It didn't deter some big names in racking up eye-catching performances on matchday five.

Yes, it's Gibraltar, the minnows to end all minnows. But they still need unlocked when defending deep and Eriksen made a difficult evening immensely straightforward. His superb cross was converted by Robert Skov for 1-0, then two well-taken penalties killed the contest before his stinging shot set up a fifth goal later.

Bosnia put the foot down early against Liechtenstein and didn't let up, with Dinamo Zagreb's Gojak playing the key role. He opened the scoring before laying on Edin Dzeko to clinch the match late on, and put the icing on the cake of a professional win in the final minutes.

RB Leipzig's Laimer was the metronomic force in Austria's thumping win over Latvia. Making 118 touches and with a 90% pass completion rate, he also provided a goal and an assist and outshone Marko Arnautovic. He's had a great start to the Bundesliga season for his club, too.

Harry Kane, at Wembley, eats smaller nations for breakfast and single-handedly destroyed the hapless Bulgarians. Working in tandem with Raheem Sterling, he slotted home a pull-back from the Man City man early, then converted a penalty before returning the favour for Sterling. He rounded off his hat-trick by winning, and converting, another penalty in an easy win for the Three Lions.

France seem to have limitless options at the moment and Coman is a shining example of their strength in depth. The Bayern Munich winger scored twice from his two shots on target, laid on a perfect chance that Olivier Giroud somehow missed and generally gave Albania a torrid evening. France's second team is better than most first XIs at the moment.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Donyell Mayen (FC 7.2) made a debut to remember for the Netherlands, coming off the bench to strike the decisive goal in their comeback 4-2 win over Germany. Bernardo Silva (FC 8.8) was MOTM as Portugal produced a superb display to defeat Serbia 4-2, while Andrea Belotti (FC 9.0) struck twice in Italy's 3-1 triumph away in Armenia.

Sergio Ramos (FC 8.1) scored a penalty and defended diligently as Spain were made to work hard in a 2-1 win in Romania, and 19-year-old talent Alex Isak struck twice to see off Faroe Islands, further adding to his growing reputation.